More than 75% of Connecticut candidates will opt for public funding at first opportunity - Connecticut will use its Citizens Elections public funding program for all legislative campaigns this year, and initial reports are astounding: 78% of candidates intend to use the system, according to the University of Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis survey.  By comparison, in the first year of the "Clean Elections" programs in Maine, the participation rate was 33%, and has risen steadily to over 80% in the 2006 cycle.  Most observers credit the robust funding levels in the Connecticut program, which are nearly six times larger than Maine's and over 20 times larger than Arizona's.  Common Cause Connecticut director Andy Sauer, who led the fight to pass the law, is now spearheading the effort to get candidates and voters up to speed on using the system.  He launched a new website, www.CitizensElections.org, and is holding candidate outreach sessions in the coming months.  A new day is dawning for Connecticut democracy, and the first results are beyond encouraging--they're almost off the charts.

New Jersey passes National Popular Vote - Right after New Year's, the New Jersey Senate passed a plan to join other states in using the National Popular Vote to elect future presidents of the United States. Governor Jon Corzine is expected to sign the bill into law, which would make New Jersey the second state, with Maryland, to enact it.  Once adopted by other states, this plan would ensure that the candidate who wins the popular vote in all 50 states would be elected president.  Common Cause's Derek Cressman worked closely with the campaign and a DC-based volunteer phone bank to CCNJ members helped flood state Senate offices with phone calls and emails to help ensure the win. Read more in the press release.

Common Cause pushes in Iowa, presidential candidates endorse full public financing - When we launched the Iowa campaign to get presidential candidates on board with public financing back in July, we couldn't have expected this level of success: every Democratic presidential candidate committed, in writing, to prioritize passing a full public financing law for Congressional campaigns.  Iowa CC organizer Kyle Lobner led the effort to recruit over 200 volunteers to question the candidates directly, and with national staff support we helped place an Op-Ed in the Des Moines Register by former Congressman Berkley Bedell (D-IA), and a day later ran seven full-page ads in major Iowa papers.  In the couple weeks following that mid-December media blitz, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson joined the rest of the Democratic field in returning our pledge and affirming their support for the type of public financing system embodied in the Fair Elections Now Act for Congress.  We ran the ad again in New Hampshire, and can now rest assured that, at minimum, one of the nominees for President will be a supporter of our public financing efforts!

Common Cause Rhode Island hosts two governors, wins media praise - The annual meeting for CCRI featured two prominent guests, Bruce Sundlun and Lincoln Almond, both former governors of the state.  Their animated exchange got the attention of the Providence Journal.  As CCRI's Nan Sumner-Mack reported in November, the event gave them a chance to spotlight their long-standing quest to pass Separation of Powers legislation in Rhode Island.

Poll on Judicial Public Financing in Wisconsin -- A new poll released today shows Wisconsin voters of every age, every ideological persuasion and every political party affiliation are worried about the influence of money on judges and overwhelmingly support reform legislation that would create publicly financed state Supreme Court elections. This legislation, Assembly Bill 250 (and its identical companion measure, Senate Bill 171) would provide 100% public financing for candidates for the State Supreme Court who voluntarily agreed to limit their campaign spending to $400,000. It is part of Governor Doyle's proposed Special Session campaign finance reform package (along with S.B. 12) that is strongly supported by Common Cause in Wisconsin.  Doyle called the special session this past November 30th after incessant calls on him by CC/WI to do so.

Former Congressman Jim Leach will chair the Common Cause National Governing Board - In December, former Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA), who served 15 terms representing Iowa's second district in Congress, and who now serves as interim director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, accepted the nomination and was unanimously approved as the new chairman of the CC board.  Leach brings a wealth of knowledge of the inner workings of Congress, a long resume on democracy issues, and a history of bipartisanship.  "We're so busy telling everyone else in the world how to do democracy that we've failed to place a proper emphasis on improving our own model," he said, and went on to highlight Common Cause's work on campaign finance reform and improving political debate.  You can read more about Leach in his bio, as well as in this press release.  Welcome aboard and good luck, Congressman!